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FRONT BURNER

Brown-Bag Lunches Have DLA Subsistence

Leaders and Employees Talking

rown-bag lunches, where Defense Logistics Agency who works on what team, photos of Subsistence managers
BTroop Support Subsistence supply chain leaders meet and supervisors will be displayed in their command area,
informally with their employees, are succeeding in achiev- and their organization chart will be made available online.
ing a more welcoming and productive work environment. Faso and Vasquez shared brown bag lunch comments
The lunches began over six months ago to help address with managers and supervisors in a two-hour session March
concerns raised in a 2016 DLA corporate culture survey 6. Afterwards, those managers and supervisors provided
and to let Subsistence leaders gather employee feedback their feedback during their own brown-bag lunches with
to better understand the working conditions. Subsistence leadership.
“It was an opportunity to lay the foundation with our “The tendency is to just focus on the things that need
workforce, managers and supervisors, and that every en- to change, but there were a lot of comments made about
counter that we have with each other should be
based on dignity and respect,” said Rich Faso,
deputy director, Subsistence supply chain, “as well
as to try and build trust that people’s thoughts
and concerns wouldn’t be held against them.”
Faso, together with Director of Supplier Op-
erations Gina Vasquez and Director of Customer
Operations John Sheehan, hosted more than 30
brown bag lunches, held weekly, with employees
from the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support
supply chain.
By the end of May, six months after beginning
the lunch meetings, Subsistence supply chain lead-
ers had gathered feedback from nearly 90 percent
of their employees.
“We saw some interesting comments from the
Denison survey and thought ‘let’s get the feel of
the workforce,’” Faso said, explaining that Sub-
sistence leadership wanted to understand, “Was The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Subsistence supply chain
this the thought of many? Or, a comment of a few? … to held more than 35 brown-bag lunches in order to better understand their
try and ascertain the culture of the commodity.” workforce’s needs. The brown-bag sessions were designed to help address
Stephen Granato, a 10-year Subsistence employee and areas of concern indicated in the Denison climate culture survey’s written
acquisition specialist, attended a brown-bag lunch in early comments. (Photo by Alex Siemiatkowski, DLA Troop Support public affairs.)
December.
“The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming, which the camaraderie of the workforce,” Faso said. “It is a close-
allowed for people to speak freely about workplace issues,” knit community and people are very generous, friendly
Granato said. and appreciative of their jobs here.”
Chris Ludwig, Subsistence tailored vendor logistics Subsistence leadership plans to continue to host brown-
specialist and Culture Improvement Team (CIT) lead, bag lunches throughout the year to maintain the pulse
said the brown-bag discussions correlated with CIT focus of the workforce.
areas. Those focus areas are communication between the “We didn’t hit everybody,” Faso said. “We respected
supplier and customer directorates, accountability and those individuals who just maybe didn’t feel comfortable
job-specific training. enough to come. I think it shows that we have some work
Ludwig said the CIT is creating a repository system for to do as a community and that there is still 10 percent of
standard operating procedures, job aids and other docu- the people that we didn’t get (at the lunches) for some
ments. reason.”
“Our intent is to make it so people can dig into the Faso said the brown bag sessions went well and he
repository and find what they need,” he said. “Another hopes that eventually all Subsistence employees will feel
discussion is to work on a program that encourages em- comfortable enough to speak their mind.
ployees and managers to highlight one another’s actions, “If we ever got to 100 percent (attendance) then I think
similar to a point system or reward system.” that we can say we made a step toward making this a bet-
Integrating new employees was another topic discussed ter place to work and that people feel confident here,”
during the brown-bag lunches. To show new employees Faso said.
4 GOVERNMENT FOOD SERVICE • JULY 2017